I
want to thank my two great friends Tony Gwynn and Merv Rettenmund
for all of the endless hours they’ve spent and knowledge they’ve
shared with me. If class is how you treat people you don’t need,
then these two are surely true class.

Mark
Wetzel

About Mark Wetzel

It is a complicated task to describe
the mystery surrounding Mark Wetzel’s ability to
successfully teach the art of hitting a baseball. He has
been referred to as the "Horse Whisperer of Baseball",
comparing his unusual abilities to that of the man who
communicates and trains horses through a unique method
involving their natural body language.

The mystery is not in the results
that Mark achieves but the manner by which he corrects a
hitter’s swing. Mark Wetzel is legally blind. He has
been afflicted with macular degeneration of the retina
since the age of 14. Mark sees hitters differently than
the rest of us. The mystery is not in how he sees rather
what he sees. The awe and curiosity surrounding this
phenomenon was best expressed in the 1990’s by a player
then playing with the Omaha Royals, Kansas City Royal’s
AAA farm team. After quietly watching Mark with other
hitters, Felix Martinez gingerly approached Mark
following practice at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium.
Martinez took a sidelong glance to insure no one was
watching and whispered to Wetzel "What do you see in my
swing blind man?" Martinez, as so many others before and
after him, had become intrigued at the magical way
Wetzel completely dissected and corrected his hitter’s
swing. This is difficult for a seeing man and nearly
impossible for a blind man.

Mark learned that he had macular
degeneration at the young age of 14, after he found
himself unable to catch a baseball. Mark was prompted to
see a doctor for a diagnosis after a misguided coach
made jeering comments on his inability to catch a fly
ball. The diagnosis forced Mark to quit baseball. He was
forced to live in a visual world filled with dark
shadows and silhouettes. He does not see a face as you
and I see it, only its outline. He cannot read a bat
label, only the silhouette of the bat. Mark cannot read
a headline in a newspaper or pick out a player by the
number on his shirt, but he can identify players just by
observing their swing.

Rather than wallow in self-pity, Mark
has turned the world upside down by not allowing the way
he sees the world to be something subnormal. The way he
uses his vision is something extraordinary. The way Mark
sees a baseball hitter allows him to diagnose that
hitter and the arc of his baseball bat in a way which no
other person can understand, imitate nor imagine. I
believe Mark is the best in the country at both spotting
the smallest hitting details and conveying them to the
hitter.

Mark has focused his unique vision of
the world on one goal; to become the very best hitting
instructor. It has led him to first learning from and
now actively working along side and sharing ideas with
some of baseball’s best hitters and teachers. The best
include Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn and San Diego Padre
hitting coach Merv Rettenmund. Merv is considered, by
many, to be the dean of Major League hitting coaches. I
have personally been present to hear Mark share in the
most minute detail hitting concepts and drills with
Gwynn, Rettenmund, as well as ball players from the
major leagues to Division 1 college players and coaches.
Two examples include Steve Sisco, from the Atlanta
Braves, and Einar Diaz, from the Cleveland Indians. I
was with Mark when both of these players asked for
instruction at a Spring Training game. I have seen him
work with hundreds of hitters. I walk away from each
session feeling that I have just watched an artist at
work.

Each Spring a new crop of struggling
hitters find their way to Mark’s batting cages. Mark’s
unique skills and his attention to each individual
hitter’s need for improvement has helped to turn many of
these struggling athletes into All State and Division 1
ball players. On Sunday evenings during ball season, you
can find Mark at his desk taking calls from coaches and
players in college and professional levels all across
the country. One Sunday evening, while visiting with
Mark, a sports psychologist called to speak with Mark in
a three way conversation about small details of hitting
with a NY Mets player. His players also check in to
report how their games and practices went. Mark gives
them instruction and encouragement over the phone.
Without a doubt, his students are grateful.

There is no guess work, no
blustering, no clichés, or false platitudes that I have
observed in so many others. This ability was
demonstrated when Mark met Tony Gwynn. He had the
opportunity to discuss his swing with him after watching
Tony’s swing earlier that week. Tony was amazed at all
the minute details Mark was ale to see! For example,
Mark noticed Tony’s hands had set down in stride inside
his back foot on his stride on a pitch at one at bat.
The ability to "see" and the ability to demonstrate the
hitting techniques of a Tony Gwynn or a Barry Bonds,
combined with the ability to instruct, cajole, humor and
even scold a hitter invariably leads to a hitter
improving while under Mark’s wing. This ability has led
to Mark recently having, at one time, six of the nine
hitters named to the Nebraska All-State Baseball Team.
It has led to a small school in Colorado leading the
state in hitting four of the last five years. It has led
to professional players either calling or making their
way personally to Mark’s hitting facility in Omaha. It
has also led to job opportunities. Mark interviewed for
AAA job with a roving hitting instructor named Jimmy
Johnson. As Mark gave his expertise, Jimmy Johnson’s jaw
dropped. He asked, "Where in thee hell did you learn all
of this?". More importantly, it has led to many of
Mark’s former students, long after leaving the active
world of baseball, to contact Mark to continue an
acquaintance that had begun years earlier in a batting
cage; someplace, somewhere.

I have seen or heard Mark on national
or regional television (CNN, Fox), radio shows (Paul
Harvey, Rudy- of the football fame), and read about his
talents in magazines, and newspapers. I even read about
him in the Congressional Record, June 4, 2003, in a
stirring tribute by then U.S. Congressman Scott
McGinnis.

I do not know what will become of
Mark’s eyesight. I suspect that over time it will
deteriorate. When it does, baseball will have lost a
treasure. What I know for certain is that at the end of
any given lesson, a hitter will emerge as a better
hitter. He will also emerge a better person: all brought
about by a man who sees the world in a way that only the
rest of us can imagine.